The present invention relates to a signal recording/reproducing apparatus, such as an R-DAT, an 8-mm video tape recorder, a CD player, or the like for recording and/or reproducing a signal such as an audio signal.
When, for example, an audio signal is recorded on a given recording medium, the recording level is monitored to prevent the recording medium from being saturated. Also, during reproduction, the reproduced level must be monitored in order to control the volume of the output sound.
A recent tendency has been to display the signal level with both an analog indicator, such as a bar-type display, and digitally as a numerical value, for example, with the use of a seven-segment display device.
In the conventional apparatus, however, the time period for refreshing the numeric display has been made the same as for the bar-type display. The information displayed by the bar-type display, even if it changes rapidly, can readily be comprehended because of its graphic and pictorial nature. On the other hand, the human observer requires more time to mentally process the numerical value displayed by the seven-segment numeric display. It generally is impossible to comprehend the numeric display if it changes at a rate normal for a bar-type display. Conversely, if the refresh period of the numeric display is slowed to the point where it can readily be comprehended, the bar-type display is overly slow and has a sluggish appearance.